Hello. I wouldn't advice OpenSolaris for critical servers. You should pay for support or use sometimes very unstable /dev releases. If you like zones + ZFS, you could look at Linux configuration (e.g. LVM + OpenVZ or LVM+kvm), it would be more familiar to you) or (if you want something new and stable ) - FreeBSD + Jails (FreeBSD Zone analog). I think that OpenSolaris is not ready yet for production, especially if you are a new man for Solaris. I really like it, but living on /dev system is quite nervous (especially for server), using /release in production is quite insecure (but may be considered as an option in closed network), and it seems that Linux -centered software is overwhelming... FreeBSD has ZFS support, but not all options are supported (e.g. quotas for users and NFS v4 ACL are not supported on 8-RELEASE). Jails is a good analog for Zones. Security patches are coming quick, soft in ports is updated regularly, it may be easily compiled from source in standard way (look at ports collection). You may consider this OS if you don't need some commercial applications (The only reason for us to run OpenSolaris in production is SRSS. The most important reason for me to run OpenSolaris at home is Oracle DB :) )...
But... Is it worh to go away from old working production system? If I were you I would look at Linux technologies like LVM and OpenVZ more attentively, because migration to new operating system is always evil. > Hello, > > I'm thinking about consolidating my servers. > Currently I have a bunch of Slackware Linux servers, > running a variety of software: > > *PostgreSQL > *Samba > *Chandler (Cosmo) > *Apache/PHP > *Postfix/Dovecot/Postgrey > *VirtualBox (currently hosting 5 guests) > *Squid > one of these servers are very busy. The > Postfix/Dovecot server handles a measly 15k email per > day, the Apache webserver is serving no more than > 1-2GB per day and the Samba server is serving between > 20 and 30 clients. > > All in all, there's not a single one of the above > servers who are breaking a sweat. > > So naturally I've started thinking about > consolidating them. I'm looking in two directions: > > 1. A server running VirtualBox, hosting a bunch of > guests, each setup like my current environment. > 2. OpenSolaris and Zones. > have some experience with VirtualBox, and feel > confident that I could setup a very nice system. The > downside is of course the rather steep hardware > requirements, and the fact that I would still have > to maintain and patch each guest as a separate OS. > > With Zones this would not be the case, as far as I > understand Zones. I would build an OpenSolaris > server, and run the necessary software in separate > Zones. Patches to the main system would only have to > be done in the Global Zone, and the hardware > requirements would be significantly lower than the > VirtualBox solution. > > The main reason for staying with the VirtualBox > solution, and keeping all the individual guests > running Slackware, is my current skill-set. I've > worked with Slackware for many years, and I know it > very well. It's a tried and tested environment, that > just works. Also some of the software listed above is > manually compiled to enable/disable features, > specifically the web stuff (Apache/PHP). I can do > this blindfolded on Linux, but I've no clue if it is > as easy/simple on OpenSolaris. > > I don't have that same amount of experience with > OpenSolaris - it's new territory. I am though able to > read manuals and follow advice, so perhaps the > benefits of Zones is worth the investment in time? > > Also, how about backup? With the VirtualBox solution > I could backup the guests with ease, and even migrate > them to newer hardware later on with ease. How would > this be handled with Zones? > > What I'm looking for here is some advice. Is > OpenSolaris as simple to admin and maintain as > Slackware Linux? Is the mentioned software available > for OpenSolaris? Do you think Zones is a good > solution for my needs? > > On a final note, I've tried my hand at ZFS, and > daaaaaamn it is nice. So I guess that's another point > for OpenSolaris. :o) -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
